When Mutants UNITE
by StoryArtist89
Summary: After their defeat in NYC, and escaping to April's old family home, Leonardo is fully recovered and tells the gang it's time to head back to reclaim their home! But with so many Krang roaming the streets and turning humans into crystallized mutagen, it was time to bring in some reinforcements!
1. Chapter 1: Return from whence you came

Several months had passed since the turtles, April and Casey left New York beaten, battered… and defeated; leaving them with empty hearts and heavy memories of hurt in their minds. The fall of their Master Splinter, the destruction of their home, the loss of April's father and the disappearance of Casey's father and sister. The months to them felt like years, but it was in that time that new life came to flourish; Mikey made friends with a frog mutant named Napoleon, Donnie discovered a female Big Foot, and Raphael began forming a closer bond with Leonardo. All in all, through their hardships and lack of guidance from their Master, it was their father's teachings and the brothers strength to go on, that their bond found a way to grow more powerful than ever before.

One night, as the turtles took a day to relax from their rigorous training, Donatello was in the middle of doing research with some of the Krang tech they managed to scavenge before leaving New York. He was running a scan on one of the machines he brought, that had once led his brothers, April, and Casey, into a universe that opened gateways to other universes; from what the diagnostics were showing him…it was still operational!

"Hey Donnie?" Looking up from the edge of his screen, the turtle would find April walking into the garage with a tray of food in her hands, and a cup of what seemed to be water. "I brought you some dinner, luckily I managed to get you the good stuff before Mikey got to it first…" Placing it down, the red headed teenager walked around to Donnie's side and leaned in to see what he was looking at, "Is this what you've been working on all this time?"

Donatello nodded to April and points to one side of the screen, "See here? This is where most of the Krang activity is taking place. From what I've gathered, it must be where they've taken most of the citizens that have been turned into crystallized mutagen. Most likely having built a sort of Storage building to harvest them…"

"That's sick," She muttered in disgust, wondering how these Krangs could ever do such horrendous things. However, she added with a question, "…and what about those that were just… turned to mutants?" April was worried and she had every right to be, after all, her father was turned into a mutant several times.

"I-" Donnie had to stop himself to actually think on what he was going to tell April, after all, this was a delicate topic and more than once… he's screwed up. "-I don't know April. But from what it seemed when we left, the Krang are just letting those that were mutated, roam around the streets like mindless drones."

In some ways, April found relief in hearing this, knowing that her father was somewhat safe. Leaning back to cross her arms, she looked at the device on the table and then back over to Donnie, "And this? Does this have to do with what you're doing?"

Donnie nodded and quickly typed in a few commands on his 'Shell-top' as he brought up a few screens with documents in them, most likely dealings with the Krang… and other big time investors. "It looks like the Shredder wasn't the only one the Krang made contact with. Look at all these bases! I've calculated that there are about four located around the world and that they've been used for mutations." He turns around to face April on the chair, picking up the teleport device and giving a little gesture to it, "With this baby, and a bit of tweaking, I was able to get it up and running."

"Get what up and running?" From the garage door to the house, Leon, Raph and Mikey were standing at the door way with expressions of curiosity and seriousness (well, curiosity and awe for Mikey, always the child at heart.) "What's this about bases around the world?"

"Just as I said Leo," Donnie rose as the other's came close, "I've discovered that the Krang had other bases located around the world. So far, only four of them seem active."

"Dude! That means there might be more of us out there!" Mikey said with a rather excited tone, but gets a bop on the head by Raphael.

"Yeah, and any one of them could be like Tiger Claw, or the Rat King." Raphael crossed his arms and looked over to his slightly taller, but younger sibling, "So lemme guess, you had something in mind?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Donnie began in defense and moved back to his computer, "I was able to hack most of the base's data and I managed to collect some files." With a few simple commands from his keyboard, up came three files and pictures that came with them.

Mikey gasps and pushes Donnie down to look at one of them, "WHOA! Check that one out! Australia!"

"Yeah… oh, this one is in Japan, like Tiger Claw." Leo spoke with interest.

Raph snickers to the last one, pointing, "Geeze, this one's shorter than short." He turns his head to look over his brothers, asking the most obvious of questions, "And how are we suppose to find all of them? It's not like we can just magically open a door and waltz in there."

All the turtles looked to one another, but Donnie was the only one smiling, as he lifts up the little device in his hand and bounced his brow ridges. Mikey seemed to get it, and Raph looked interested in the idea; but Leo had crossed his arm in disapproval. "I don't know about this Donnie," Leo said worriedly, "I mean, let's say this does work, what guarantee do we have that this will take us to where we want to go?"

"Ah Leo, so full of doubt." Donnie placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, "Why do you think I've been spending my time here in the garage? I've been rewiring the circuits on this baby to open up doorways, based on locations I type in. And! As a fail safe that the portal does close behind us," On the table he lifts up another device of the same kind, "I've made this duplicate in the events that something goes wrong."

"Whoa, so you've like, thought of everything, huh bro?" Mikey looked so amazed at the duplicate portal, wanting to reach out and touch it, but Donnie gave his hand a light shoo away.

Leonardo needed to think hard about this, his arms crossed as he took a moment to step away and plan all of this in his head. His eyes closed; first thing's first… they needed to find a place to lay low if they were to go back to New York. Then find any allies that are still around… or rather, still alive. Boy, could he sure use Splinter's guidance right about now. Or at least to have his presence there. He knew his brother's had their eyes on him, as well as April and Casey (who had finally noticed he was the only one watching TV alone.) Slowly, as he opened his eyes from his heavy meditative thinking, he lowers his arms and turns to face everyone, "Alright guys, we're going back to New York, but first thing's first;" He walks over to one part of the garage where they had located an old map from April's attic, it was a map of New York and it was still in mint condition, "We find a new base of operation. Our lair was trashed so we'll need a new place to set up."

"What about the old subway station?" Donnie asked and points along the map, "When we first met Leatherhead, he was living pretty close to the abandoned station that was built during the 1900's. I'm pretty sure that by now, they've forgotten all about it."

"…do you think we'll find Leatherhead?" Mikey piped up, his head lowering lightly as his eyes met the floor, "In all the craziness before we left, I didn't see him anywhere."

The garage was filled with silence; Michelangelo was right. Was Leatherhead okay? No one had seen him when they went to gather everyone to leave New York. Was he in hiding? Did he get captured? …was he- "I'm sure he's okay Mikey," Raphael began, speaking with a softer tone then he had before, as he rests one hand over his younger brother's shoulder, "Maybe on way to this abandon station, we'll bump into him!" Leo hid a smile to see that Raphael was trying his best to keep Mikey's spirit up, it was always good to keep the faith. Maybe they search for Leatherhead… they could also search for Splinter.

"Well guys, that settles it." With a proud and very strong look in his eyes, he draws his katana and lifts it up over him, "We're going back to New York! And reclaiming our home!"

"YEAH!"

_**[TBC...]**_


	2. Chapter 2: Finding an Old Friend

It took the group a couple of hours to get from April's old family home to the city, and with a few stops and modifications to the Turtle Tank along the way… they were finally home. Or rather… what was left of their home. There was so much damage to the city, and what's worse, nearly half of it has been transformed into crystallized Mutagen. Everything that they knew and loved; why ever the citizens that weren't crystallized, but merely mutated, were changed. The turtles watched in such horror and disgust, their anger boiling up inside, but for April, she was frantically looking through the streets. Hoping and praying that she would find her father, or at least recognize him in the crowd of mutants.

"Dude, why aren't they attacking us?" Mikey asked, his face smooshed against one of the windows as he stares out into the streets, the mutant citizens just lumbering on by, "It's like we're invisible." He gasps and looks over to Donnie as he shouts, "Oh my gosh dudes, WE'RE TOTALLY INVISIBLE!"

"No Mikey, we're not." Donnie looked back to his smallest brother and motions to a new feature he's added to the vehicle, "At least not exactly. I'm using the same cloaking technique the Krangs use to disguise themselves as agents-"

"And cops man!" Casey added quickly, crossing his arms with a grunt, "Always knew that cops were aliens."

Donnie glared at Casey for a while, trying his hardest not to be annoyed as he would continue before getting interrupted again, "Anyway, what the mutated citizens and the Krang sentries are seeing right now, is the black van they've always used when they had to look like humans to the public. So far it seems to be working pretty well, if I do say so myself."

"Enough gibber gabber about your new cloaking thing, Donnie, where do we need at go to enter the subways?" Raph asked rather impatiently. He didn't want to stay above the surface for much longer, looking at all the mutants weirded him out.

"Okay, Leo, make a left at the second light and head straight down till you see a parking garage entrance that's leading down. It should lead us to an old parking lot that was part of the abandoned subway station."

"Dude, why would they park their cars down there? They do realize they would have plenty of space if they parked on the street." With a whack to the head, Mikey grunts and glares over to Raph, who shook his head.

"It was a way to help the people back then, who would work miles across the city. They would park their cars below, take the subway to work, come back and drive home. But once they subway station closed down because of location and subway remodeling, no one ever came back to use the old station."

"Good thing too," Leonardo commented, making that left turn at the second light, as he began to see much older buildings come into view, like old shops and plain old ice cream saloons. As they drove a bit further up, Leonardo could see an old worn sign that mentioned the subway station parking garage, "There!" He turns in and follows the painted street sign that directs them down, down under the streets of New York… and into a place that time has literally forgotten, "Whooooa…. Look at this place."

"Dude, it's like, all old and stuff." Mikey said, looking rather amazed.

"No, really Mikey? I could never tell the difference." Raph retorted.

"That's because I'm a genius." Mikey teased.

"Will you two cut it out?" Leonardo looked back a moment and turned his eyes to Donnie, "Where to now Donnie?"

"There's a ramp that should be located further down the parking garage," Donatello said, rising from where he sat to sit by Leo and showing him an old map on his shell-top, "That will actually lead us to where all the old subways use to park when it was time to change shift with the subway conductors."

"Then that's where we're headed." With his eyes back on the road, he drove, making sure to listen to his brother's direction, as well as keeping a full blown alert about their surroundings. Who was to say that this place Donnie was leading them was safe? Obviously there had to be more reasons why this place was abandoned. It seemed like hours when they finally found the ramp, passing by old flyers from the 1900's and old fashioned phone booths that looked out of order. Once they went down the ramp and found themselves on the subway tracks, they would start driving along down the empty tunnels, their high beams on so that they could see where they were going.

"According to my shell-top, we'll be nearing another abandoned subway station. That's where we'll set up base and-WHOA!" Suddenly the Turtle Tank was weaving left and right; Leonardo had jerked the wheel in time to avoid hitting something that looked WAY too big to simply be a sheet of paper, pressing on the breaks to stop the tank. "Leo!"

"I'm sorry! I-I think I almost hit something." Leonardo looked through the rear view mirror, finding that he could see what was behind him. "Raph, hit the lights for the back."

With a simply flick of a switch, Leonardo's eyes grew wide with horrified shock, as he turned his entire body around to gaze back, "…it can't be."

"W-What?" Casey asked with worry, "Dude what is it?"

"It's… I-It's-"

"Leatherhead!" April managed to get in, one hand resting at the temple of her forehead, "It's Leatherhead! But he's-"

"LEATHERHEAD!" Mikey kicks the back doors open with a wide smile on his face, gasping as he saw from the light, what Leonardo had seen. Scars. Slashes. Blade marks. Every bit of Leatherhead's body was covered in it, his shoulder scales were chipped and his frame looked way too thin. Had he been hiding here the entire time? Mikey slowly got out of the truck and made his way to the still old croc, recalling how his friend had aged when he was in Dimension X, "…l-leatherhead? Buddy?"

The body was still, there came no sound of breathing… but slowly the body moved, uncurling itself achingly from it's resting place… until Leatherhead turned to face the young Michelangelo. His cheeks were sunken in, his eyes which were now poor in sight, were carrying dark circles under them. He gave a light sniff, those dull eyes growing with life, as his crocodile jaw (which was missing a few sharp teeth) opened, releasing a tired creaky voice, "…m-my friends…" The large frail beast's voice sounded shaky, his frame looking to tremble and creek as he moved.

"What… happened to him?" Donnie and Raph stood by the entrance to the tank, giving Leo room to walk out, as they watched their leader walk along side Mikey to Leatherhead.

The two turtles moved to help the old croc up, both feeling how thin he had gotten during their many months away, and seeing that these slashes… were more than familiar. "Leo, these slashes-"

"I know Mikey," Leonardo began, both he and his brother helping the elder croc towards the tank slowly, as he spoke to his sibling in a low voice, "But first thing's first. April?"

"I'm on it." April was very familiar with the tank before Casey had joined the group, she knew were almost everything was, including a first aid kit and what was left of their food. Clearly, it seemed, that Leatherhead needed it. She listened to Michelangelo coaxing Leatherhead to take it easy, that they were almost to the tank and soon he would be able to relax. The tank moved a bit, rocking side to side to have the old croc inside and seated in one of the comfortable chairs.

"Leatherhead, buddy, say something, look at me, can I get you anything? Who-"

"Mikey, stop, give him room to breathe." Leo chided, listening to Leatherhead's ragged breathing as he saw the old croc lean back against the seat. "…Do you need anything else?"

"….n-nghnn… no… m-my friends… just," The old croc moved, adjusting as his body creaked more, letting his head rest on the seat and sighs, "-just… want to… s-sleep…"

The group looked to one another in worry, but they had to move on; April stayed at Leatherhead's side to dab some water on his scaly forehead, while Mikey sat by Leatherhead's feet to keep him company; that and… Leatherhead was sitting on his seat. "Don't worry Leatherhead, I won't let anyone else hurt you, pal…"

_**[T.B.C...]**_


	3. Chapter 3: Plan of Action

The drive down the tunnel was a long and quiet one, save for the sound of Leatherhead's rasped breathing; April was doing her best to help the old croc in everyway she knew how. She made sure to tend to any new wounds that he might have had, cleaned as much dirt from him as possible, and even placed a cool rag over his forehead as it seemed he was a little too warm for his normal body temperature. April knew that Leatherhead needed to eat something, so as they drove, she carefully spoon fed him some yogurt. It was easy to handle and more so, easy to swallow. She saw in the moment she spoon fed him, Mikey gently coaxing Leatherhead by caressing his withered old claw; it must have been hard for Mikey, since Leatherhead was his first mutant friend he ever helped.

"…He's going to be okay Mikey. You'll see. He just needs time to heal."

"Thanks April," The orange bandana turtle looked up at his friend resting, gently smiling to try and somehow find the Brightside, as he said softly to Leatherhead, "Hear that buddy? You're gonna be better soon, okay? Then you and I can sneak a slice of pizza."

The old croc, having caught snippets of April and his young turtle friend's conversation, wearily opened his eyes for a moment and looked down to Mikey with a tired expression on his face, but managed to give him a wrinkled smile. "…t-that sounds… nice. M… Michelangelo…" Goodness, he sounds so worn out, and just as soon as he had woken to speak to his friend… he leaned his head to the side, eyes closed, and was back to sleeping. He needed all the rest he could get to get back his strength.

It took the group three hours… but they finally made it to the other station, and boy, was it HUGE! There were two parked subway cars settled in the middle of the station; as the tank drove up the ramp, they parked and found that the station had everything they needed; on the left side of the station there's a lounge area that was meant for smoking, a small food court with two stands. Connecting to the other side was a small bridge, that when subways were ready to depart, the bridge opened up and would allow them through, the right side of the station had bathrooms, and the small office that was meant for the subway conductors to either have their lunch or rest.

"This place is huge! It has everything we need to make this a real lair." Donnie said with excitement, thinking of the possibilities they had in renovating this station.

"Well that's all fine and dandy Donnie, but don't you think we should worry on other things first?" Raphael asked with his arms crossed.

Leonardo walked into one of the subway cars and tried to get in, the doors were rusty and seemed to creak when he struggled. So with quick thinking, he used his katana to slide between the two doors and twists to make just enough space for him to fully open the inside. The cushion seats looked soft and the floor was covered in soft carpet, "Mikey, April? Let Leatherhead rest in here."

"Alright Leo," April called and turned to Leatherhead, who was slowly waking from his sleep, "Leatherhead? We found a place for you to rest. It's a short walk away." She started helping the elder croc with Mikey's help, both guiding him out the tank and slowly over to the subway car, where they heard Leonardo manage to shove down the back side of the cushioned seat and making it seem like an actual bed. "Great idea in getting the back part down Leo."

"I'll go get Leatherhead my blankie!" Mikey exclaimed once they set Leatherhead down, hurrying to fetch his.. 'blankie,' while the old croc laid down and curled himself into a wrinkled thin ball. "Got it!" He shouts, coming back with a small baby blanket that had alphabets embroidered on it, "Here buddy, this'll keep ya totally warm."

Leatherhead looked up, eyes squinted… staring at the small child sized blanket. Leatherhead couldn't help but to lightly crack a smile and wheezed a raspy chuckle, his tail very weakly thumping against the seat cushion when the blanket was placed on his shoulders, like a shawl, "…thank you… m-my friend." Once more he curled up, the croc taking in a deep breath, and exhaling, knowing that for now… he could rest and let his guard down.

"Alright guys, so what's the plan?" After taking everything out of the back of the turtle tank and setting up what they could with the little equipment they had, Rapheal sat down on a seat that was located in the lounge area, feet lifted up to rest on an old table, "We got our new base, we found Leatherhead, what's next on our agenda?"

"To be honest," Donnie began, frowning in dismay to their predicament, "We'll need to get some running electricity down here. I can't do a thing on my computer to pin point the Krang bases, or even hack into their networking system by using just the turtle tank's energy."

"Then that's what we'll do next," Leonardo began, "Donnie, see if you can find some sort of fuse box, there has to be something down here that can give us some more light." He turns to the rest of the group, "Mikey, you and Raph will stay here with Leatherhead; while April, Casey and I go head up top to gather some supplies, as well as other things we might need."

"Oh, oh, oh! See if you guys can grab a pizza along the way," Mikey asked with excitement, bouncing in place as he then let his arms hang, "I've been really dying for a triple decker pepperoni pizza."

"Oh yeah, like the pizza place is still gonna be opened, especially with every citizen turned into MUTANTS!" Raph grumbles, glaring at his idiotic sibling, and felt himself take a step back when he heard.

"Who knows, they might be doing a special." Mikey replied.

"You're special." Raph retorted.

"Guys, stop it, you're making too much noise." April said, walking out from the subway car to close the door, "Leo, I think I should stay here to help with Leatherhead, and Raph can go in my place."

"Thank you!"

"Ugh, fine. Casey, Raph and I will go up top to gather food supplies, while April and Mikey stay here."

Donatello walked over to Leo to hand him a list of what they would all need, including the food, medicine, and some wires, "Just be careful up there guys. The turtle tank maybe disguised, but you aren't."

"No worries Donnie," Casey said, grinning as he lightly tapped his hockey stick on his own shoulder, "We'll be back before Mikey can say, 'Boo-ya-kasha'."

"I mean it Casey, we don't know what the mutant citizens will do once they see you." Donatello reaches into his bag to pull out a map of the streets, "Here, take this with you, it will help you find the places you need to go a lot faster."

With a light nod of his head, Leonardo turned to the turtle tank with Casey and Raph, leaving the rest of the group to do what they were assigned to. "We'll be back soon, until then, keep all shell-cell calls to a minimum, alright?" As soon as the tank started pulling out and down back into the tunnels, the three were gone, leaving Donnie, April, Mikey and Leatherhead. They hoped they would be able to be okay with the group spilt into two…

_**[T.B.C...]**_


	4. Chapter 4: We couldn't save him

While Leo, Casey and Raph made their way up to the city, and Donnie off to find the circuit box for the old station, April, Mikey and Leatherhead remained by the subway cars. The young teenager was using her phone to look up some video's about crocodile anatomy to better understand Leatherhead's condition, while Mikey was seated by his much older friend and showing him souvenirs about their encounters up state. Mikey had TONS to share; flies from when he met his mutant frog friend Napoleon, a flower from when Raph was turned into some weird plant mutant, hair from when Donnie discovered Bigfoot (and learned that he was actually a SHE) and a quill from when they encountered those DreamBeavers…

"And then, we found a Krang ship under April's old house, and we thought we found April's mom! But I totally knew it wasn't her and I so called it when she kinda… well… ate us. But April used her jedi mind powers to save us all, it was so awesome."

"It seems… you all h-had… quiet the adventure, m-my friend." It took Leatherhead some time to process his thoughts and put them into a sentence, being that he was still very tired and recovering from his old wounds and lack of food. But thanks to April's constant visual and giving him the strange mushy food of strawberry flavor (aka the yogurt) it was sustaining him for the time being. "And… what of your… m-master?" He asked, "How does… h-he feel about… your adv-ventures?"

Both Mikey and April fell silent, both either looking away or turning to face him with a very sad expression on their face. "…Leatherhead?" April spoke out, slowly walking to him as she knelt by his side, hand softly on his very hunched and scaly back, "It… you see… Master Splinter came across Shredder and-"

"He's gone." At that point, Leatherhead heard a tone in his young friend that he had never thought to hear; it was the sound… of a heavy sadness… and defeat, "Shredder struck Master Splinter down when his back was turned… and then tossed Splinter into the sewer water…"

April had often worried about Mikey's mental stability about the incident and up until now, he had shown no true sign that he had taken it so hard. Before she could say anything, she watched as Leatherhead moved his creaky old body to sit up and move himself to settle down by Mikey. With his large scaly tail, he moved to wrap about Mikey and pull him close, while one arm lift up to give the young turtle… a hug.

"W-Whoa, hey big guy, you gotta-"

"I am sorry… my friend," Mikey fell short when Leatherhead spoke, his hug lightly tightening to hold Mikey close, "…I am sorry… t-that you had to endure… t-this hardship. Your master… w-was a good creature…and a good father." The young turtle felt his eyes widen, the redness starting to appear when his heartstrings were finally tugged at their hardest, as tears swelled at the corners. His breathing started to pick up pace, his hands trembled as they moved to hug Leatherhead, and before he knew it… the small creature let out a loud and very agonizing wail of sadness. The small turtle cried and cried, the look of pain that he's held in for days upon days were finally being released, as he clung to Leatherhead with such a pain in his heart. He saw his master; his father, die before their eyes and his body cast into the water as if he was nothing! He tried to forget, he tried to block it from his mind and heart, telling himself it was a dream and Splinter was still alive! Even April said that his presence was still with them, but… they waited all this time for him, or be given some form of sign.

"W-WE COULDN'T H-HELP HIM!" Mikey sobbed out with a powerful voice as it resonated the subway, "And we… a-and we…"

Leatherhead lowered his long snout down, bringing the young turtle in his embrace to hide him from the world and it's cruelty and harsh reality, "Shhhh…. It is alright m-my friend." If Leatherhead was still his young self, he wouldn't have known what to do in terms on comfort, but being that Dimension X's affects were different from Earth's, time and age aided him to a better understanding and wisdom.

Michelangelo… needed this. The comfort. The hug. The embrace. It calmed him down somewhat and made him feel just a little better… but it didn't heal the hole in his heart or help him from stopping his tears.

As the two held each other the way friends comfort one another, suddenly light began to flicker all around them as the slight buzzing sound indicated that electricity was charging the old station. April lightly wiped her eyes, looking around to see the light, and taking a moment to poke her head out of the subway window, "Looks like Donnie got the power going… I'll uh," She sniffled, slowly stepping out, "I'll go ahead and wait for him to return."

At this point, it seems Leatherhead was giving what he could to Mikey; a fatherly comfort. He knew he couldn't take Splinter's place, no one could, but… if he could help ease the pain somehow. He will…

_**[T.B.C...]**_


End file.
